In consideration of environmental problems, the automotive industry, in particular, has been pursuing weight reduction of automotive bodies in these years and analysis using a computer-aided engineering (referred to as “CAE analysis”, below) is a technology indispensable to automotive body designing.
It is known that the CAE analysis involves optimization technology such as mathematical optimization, thickness optimization, shape optimization, or topology optimization to enhance the rigidity or to reduce the weight and is often used for optimizing the structure of castings such as an engine block.
Among optimization technologies, an attention is particularly paid to topology optimization. The topology optimization is a method that includes installing three-dimensional elements in a design space of a certain size and forming an optimal shape that satisfies given conditions by leaving minimum part of the three-dimensional elements that satisfies the given conditions. Thus, the topology optimization is a method that includes directly constraining three-dimensional elements forming a design space and directly applying a load to the three dimensional elements.
As an example of the technology related to such topology optimization, Patent Literature 1 discloses a method for topology optimization of components of a complex structure.